Matcaps from 2.79 better than 2.8?
Since Blender 2.8 there is a whole new collection of matcaps, sadly leaving behind some of the tried-and-true matcaps from 2.79. The good news is that we can easily get the old matcaps into 2.8 or 2.9. Matcaps are sleek to look at but they can also be extremely useful for surface analysis. I think all the new matcaps fall far short in that regard. Even the new zebra stripe matcap doesn’t do quite as well as the old reflective red matcap when it comes to pointing out even the most minor flaws. Another advantage the red matcap has over the stripes is that you can keep it enabled while modeling without going blind.
This tutorial will walk a new user of blender through the basics of setting up a mesh for rendering using Cycles using only free assets available online. The tutorial can be followed along with blender 2.79 on my website. Feel free to ask me questions and give feedback on the tutorial by tweeting me @robb5300 or leaving a comment on my website. How To Use The ROBLOX Block Rig In BLENDER 2.79Block Rig: Character Lite.
Download your favorite 2.79 matcaps from GitHub
Luckily all the 2.79 matcap images are available to download here on GitHub. So find your favorite mirrorball image and save it. Below are my personal 3 favorite matcaps from 2.79. You can simply right click on them and save the image to your computer.
How To Get Blender 2.79
Loading matcaps into 2.8 or 2.9
Loading matcaps into 2.8 or 2.9 is super simple, just go to the Lights tab in the User Preferences, and click the Install button next to MatCaps, then choose the matcap image you want to load in. Now those classic 2.79 matcaps you know and love will show up in your library of matcaps! And that’s all there is to it.
Blender 2.79 Hotkeys